Italy see off North Macedonia to close in on Euro 2024
Federico Chiesa struck twice in the first half after Matteo Darmian nodded the hosts into an early lead. Giacomo Raspadori and Stephan El Shaarawy secured the three points late on and two second-half strikes from Jani Atanasov threatened a tense night for the Azzurri. The win at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome moved Italy into second in Group C behind already-qualified England.
Its means that Luciano Spalletti's team need only draw against third-placed Ukraine in Leverkusen on Monday to book a place in next summer's tournament in Germany. "The important thing is that we won. We conceded two goals that I don't think we deserved to concede," said Chiesa. "We are more positive under Spalletti, and that means we take a few more risks in defence. We showed that we wanted to dominate the play and we deserved to win."
Qualifying would help the European champions bury the ghosts of last year's traumatic failure to qualify for a second straight World Cup. North Macedonia had become Italy's bogey team after denying Italy a spot in Qatar and drawing the previous group match in September. Italy, missing a host of players to either injury or suspension, thought they had taken the lead in the 13th minute when Raspadori dinked home from Jorginho's beautifully weighted pass.
That strike was ruled out for offside, but the hosts would not be denied and Darmian headed home the opener from Raspadori's deep cross four minutes later. That was Inter Milan defender Darmian's second international goal and his first in eight years. The spectre of another disaster reared its head when Jorginho missed yet another penalty in Italy colours five minutes before the break.
The midfielder's missed spot-kick at the same ground against Switzerland cost Italy
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